Guess who was on my flight to Abuja this morning? By Funke Aboyade, SAN

I watched as he boarded the aircraft quietly and humbly, no airs or graces and sat in Economy Class.

He’d disembarked before I could blink an eye and I thought, Ah well, there goes my plan to say a few words to him.

Upon arriving the airport terminal building, I (fortuitously as it turned out) glanced right as I walked past the Gents’ and there, outside the door, was a gentleman bent over retrieving an item from his bags. Was it him, was it not him? I couldn’t make out his face as we all still had on our masks. Besides, his face was upside down🙃.

I decided to risk it and approach this stranger, after all you only die once😄. “Peter Obi?”, I called out quietly, a bit uncertain. Lo and behold, it was him, what absolute good fortune!

He was quite gracious and accommodating and obliged me with a short chat and the selfie you see below. In fact, the first lot were a bit dark, and he helpfully suggested (something I hadn’t wanted to do as I already felt I had intruded enough in his personal space) we face a different direction for better lighting.

The result is below – Funke Aboyade, SAN

Brief Bio:

Funke Aboyade (SAN) has an LL.M from the University of Cambridge (Jesus College) 1985 with distinctions in several courses.

She was admitted to the Nigerian Bar in 1983 after emerging in the top 1% of her graduating set at the Nigerian Law School.

She had graduated top 1% of her class in 1982 (LL. B) from the University of Ife, with Second Class Upper Division, winning prizes and distinctions.

Funke was admitted to the Inner Bar, becoming Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 2013. There are currently fewer than 30 female Senior Advocates of Nigeria out of 600 conferred with the rank since inception in 1975.

She was also the trailblazing pioneer Editor and creator of THISDAY LAWYER, a 16-page weekly colour and imaginative pull-out law section of Nigeria’s leading newspaper, THISDAY, where she also maintained for 13 years a weekly column, The Wig & Skirt, regularly speaking truth to power.